Marine ecosystems are changing rapidly due to ocean warming, overfishing and a raft of other anthropogenic impacts. Such changes are expected to disrupt productivity dynamics and alter marine food webs, with likely negative consequences for ecosystem services. It is, therefore, essential to devise and implement methods that can rapidly and inexpensively monitor changes in the marine food web structure. Unfortunately, conventional methods for surveying marine food webs are typically laborious, expensive and often destructive, resulting in only a small fraction of marine ecosystems being well studied, and an even smaller subset of them being studied through time. Here, we pilot a low-cost approach to reconstructing trophic networks of marine tropical, temperate and polar regions, using taxonomical inventories arising from published environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding studies, and building trophic links based on primary literature information. Although the trophic webs obtained are a simplified approximation of those constructed with traditional methods, they generate realistic networks that fit with expectations, and allow ecological inference over time scales and costs that are orders of magnitude smaller than that traditionally achieved. We show the potential of a new application of environmental DNA analysis that promises to offer a rapid and scalable approach to gather vital information on ecosystem structure, hence boosting marine monitoring at a time of increasingly rapid environmental changes.

中文翻译：

---

筛选环境 DNA 元条形码数据集以快速重建海洋食物网

由于海洋变暖、过度捕捞和一系列其他人为影响，海洋生态系统正在迅速变化。预计此类变化将破坏生产力动态并改变海洋食物网，可能对生态系统服务产生负面影响。因此，必须设计和实施能够快速且廉价地监测海洋食物网结构变化的方法。不幸的是，用于调查海洋食物网的传统方法通常费力、昂贵且往往具有破坏性，导致只有一小部分海洋生态系统得到了很好的研究，随着时间的推移，其中的一小部分正在被研究。在这里，我们试行了一种低成本的方法来重建海洋热带、温带和极地地区的营养网络，使用来自已发表的环境 DNA (eDNA) 元条形码研究的分类清单，并根据主要文献信息建立营养链接。尽管获得的营养网络是用传统方法构建的网络的简化近似，但它们生成符合预期的现实网络，并允许在时间尺度和成本上进行生态推断，这比传统方法小几个数量级。我们展示了环境 DNA 分析的新应用的潜力，它有望提供一种快速且可扩展的方法来收集有关生态系统结构的重要信息，从而在环境变化越来越快的情况下促进海洋监测。尽管获得的营养网络是用传统方法构建的网络的简化近似，但它们生成符合预期的现实网络，并允许在时间尺度和成本上进行生态推断，这比传统方法小几个数量级。我们展示了环境 DNA 分析的新应用的潜力，它有望提供一种快速且可扩展的方法来收集有关生态系统结构的重要信息，从而在环境变化越来越快的情况下促进海洋监测。尽管获得的营养网络是用传统方法构建的网络的简化近似，但它们生成符合预期的现实网络，并允许在时间尺度和成本上进行生态推断，这比传统方法小几个数量级。我们展示了环境 DNA 分析的新应用的潜力，它有望提供一种快速且可扩展的方法来收集有关生态系统结构的重要信息，从而在环境变化越来越快的情况下促进海洋监测。